Frisco ISD expands course offerings with ethnic studies

The 2021-22 school year marked the debut of Frisco ISD’s first ethnic studies class: African American Studies, an elective available to high school students across the district.

Meridith Manis, managing director of secondary teaching and learning, said the district had been looking to offer additional social studies courses for a while. The curriculum and instruction team prefers courses that have Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, which are adopted by the state, she added.

When the State Board of Education approved TEKS standards for African American Studies in April 2020, the district began researching the best way to implement the course, Manis said.

Students learn about the history and cultural contributions of African Americans, according to TEKS standards.

“This course develops an understanding of the historical roots of African American culture, especially as it pertains to social, economic and political interactions within the broader context of U.S. history,” the TEKS standards read. “It requires an analysis of important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs and traditions.”

The standards outline several primary and secondary materials that teachers should use to support classroom instruction, including autobiographies, U.S. Supreme Court cases, novels, songs, speeches and artwork.

Texas districts could offer African American Studies as an innovative course before the TEKS standards were approved. During the research period, FISD’s curriculum team met with surrounding districts to learn about how they taught the course, Manis said.

“We didn’t want it to be another history class,” Manis said. “Some kids don’t like history, and it’s really about studies. It’s about culture and life and not just history.”

The course was not affected by the bill banning critical race theory that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in June 2021, Assistant Communications Director Meghan Cone said in an email.

Critical race theory studies how race and racism have affected the country’s local and social structures. The bill also limits how teachers can discuss current events. Because the questions and themes students study in the FISD course are based on TEKS standards, they do not violate the bill.

Student demand

Just two months after the state approved TEKS standards for African American Studies, Heritage High School senior Kate Shaw started a petition asking FISD to implement African American Studies into the curriculum.

At the time, Shaw was unaware of the TEKS approval or that staff were researching for the course.

“As far as Black history goes and any other ethnic history goes, you only get glimpses of that in curricul[a],” Shaw said. “So for me, I was like, let’s try to take this opportunity to take a step forward and hopefully try to make some change.”

Shaw’s petition, which gained 2,134 signatures, circulated for about two months before she and Kashish Bastola, another Heritage High School senior, met with district curriculum builders to talk about their vision for the course.

Shaw and Bastola presented a slideshow to staff that included the petition and submissions from students who have had racially based interactions in the district.

“[The petition is] kind of what made it an easier decision for us that, yes, the timing’s right for this,” Manis said.

Course specifics

FISD’s version of African American Studies is question driven and inquiry driven, Manis said. Instead of traditional testing, most teachers across the district measure student understanding with projects and reflections.

Shaw gave an example of a recent project her class at Heritage High School completed that involved assigning groups different court cases that have affected African Americans. Each group researched a case and made a presentation that detailed the present-day effects of the ruling. Then the group asked the class questions as if they were teachers.

“We have to have these deeper conversations, and they might be uncomfortable,” Shaw said. “It’s a different experience for everybody, but I think that’s what makes it so great.”

Mizan Dorsey, a senior at Lone Star High School, said her favorite part of the class is learning about more than slavery and civil rights leaders.

“That’s not our only history, so we’ve just been learning different types of things besides that,” Dorsey said. “[We learn] about Black excellence and things that we’ve accomplished rather than things that were done against us, so I like that the most.”

A growing program

In December, each of the African American Studies classes visited the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco. Museum staff shared the history of Pullman porters, men hired to work on sleeping train cars in the late 1800s through the mid 1900s.

Students walked through a retired train car that used to run for the Pullman company and explored other historic rail cars at the museum.

Patience LeBlanc, an instructional coach at Frisco High School, is planning more field trips for the African American Studies courses. She is also looking ahead to trips for Mexican American Studies, which the district will debut next school year.

Based on how smoothly the rollout of the African American Studies course went, Manis said she expects students to receive the Mexican American Studies class well.

“We like the fact that the resources are primary and secondary sources, so it’s not textbook driven,” Manis said. “We want to continue that kind of work.”